Cast member pin trading pins- what I learned

Pibbman said:

It is a tough balance when you get the Disney Pin bug. I know I first started, I fell head first into the hobby. I purchased pins but didn’t take much consideration for the end cost. For me, the hobby felt like it was going to be too expensive to maintain and I actually stepped away for a bit.

When I returned, I set some boundaries for myself. I have a monthly pin budget, which helps me to prioritize what pins I purchase. This has helped me curb my impulse to buy every cute pin I see (and Disney does know how to make them cute!) There are some amazing Scrooge pins I would love to add to my collection, but I am going to be hunting for a while to find them at my price point or will have to make a trade for them.

I have only sold a few pins in my time in this hobby. Usually as my tastes change, I move items from my collection to my traders. Others might join the hobby at a later time and consider my older pins more desirable since they can’t readily get them. But whether buying, selling, or trading, it is definitely a good idea to do some research to get a baseline. You never know what pin might be in high demand. Back in 2017, I was trading with cast members on a trip. I came back with a Doctors Day pin from the previous year. Years later when I was looking up the value of my pins for a trade, I found out that it was going for $250+. I was shocked!

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I had a planned monthly budget, but I’ve already gone over it lol. (I also spent a lot on traders for the parks) It’s tough when you get free admission to the parks, I can blow through 10 traders in an afternoon at MK. Buying traders even with a discount can add up. ( and trading is half the fun of it) I can only scrimp and save in other areas so much. And you’re right that Disney does know how to make their cute pins.

It’s crazy that you got a $200 pin by chance! I have a few valuable pins myself I might have to cash out on for some extra spending money. Either that or some spare mystery set pins I’ve acquired. It’s super easy to get hooked on this habit early and get really impulsive.

Captain Fartbeard said:

Hi again! Decided to check out a couple pin stores in the area and see if there was anything worth scrounging for. First I hit up the Disney Character Warehouse for some traders (it's about the same price as Cast connections) then I stopped by the Pin HQ store in Ocoee.

The pin HQ was nice, they had a crazy assortment of really cool pins that would break my budget if I bought all the ones I liked. They offered me around $190 for the traders I brought, which didn't feel like a fair value (it included my LE 300 Mulan pin that I saw sold on Ebay for over $300) I did buy some pins though, couldn't resist with the selection they had. I'm posting them here along with some traders I found (all were verified except for Thumper, I'm 90% sure it's a scrapper though the guest I traded it with said they actually got it from DLP (from a lanyard though). I think he's a cute mascot for Flower and Garden festival though so he gets to stay!



Between bringing Meeko back, Nick Wilde, and Stitch it cost over $50 to bring them into the fold. (not even including the park traders I bought) I think it's about time I start selling some of my pins to help fund my habit, as I'd really love to go back there sometime and explore what they have. I'll have to explore posting some extras on the marketplace and looking up values and such. Time for some research!

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Thumper looks real. He is from a Booster set from Paris and they can be found a lot on lanyards in parks there. I was in Paris this weekend and the CM lanyards are amazing. Not a lot of CMs have them though so you have to look for them but no scrapper or fakes to be seen. The Cast members are turning down fake pins so you can only trade real ones. They even have pin boards with Le pins where you have to trade LE for Le and can only trade hidden mickeys for other hidden mikeys and so on.

My trade arcade pins came in today! I'm super excited for them, especially the Rajah Boxlunch one. With the Acquisition of the Rajah fanny pack in the parks today, my Rajah collection is flourishing! 3 of them are retrades but I still think they're super cute.




I also did some trading both here and at MK over the past few days, and here are the fruits of my efforts!


As you can see I now have the Rajah fanny pack, as well as Meeko! They were the 2 fanny pack series I've been searching after the most so I'm super happy to be adding them to my collection. The Robin Hood and Incredibles pins on the left were recent acquisitions from Cast Connections that I couldn't say no to. The most interesting pin is the Chip and Dale red apple pin, which I traded from a Japanese guest who didn't speak much English. I gave up my LE St. Patrick's day Chip and Dale for it, so the price was hefty. Still, it's super cool to be finally have some real international pins! (I looked it up on Pinpics and I don't have any reason to suspect it's fake) Despite the St. Patrick's day pin being rarer overall I feel like this one's harder to find so I'm happy with it.

Snoffsan said:

Thumper looks real. He is from a Booster set from Paris and they can be found a lot on lanyards in parks there. I was in Paris this weekend and the CM lanyards are amazing. Not a lot of CMs have them though so you have to look for them but no scrapper or fakes to be seen. The Cast members are turning down fake pins so you can only trade real ones. They even have pin boards with Le pins where you have to trade LE for Le and can only trade hidden mickeys for other hidden mikeys and so on.

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Is that so? Man, I wish they did that at WDW, I'd have a field day lol. The reason why I thought it was fake was because the back had a border, which I didn't think existed for a 2011 pin. Not sure if the picture's clear enough but here's a photo of the back.


If this pin's real that'd make me so happy! Thumper's so cute already but he'd move to the forefront of my collection if it's a legit pin.

Of course its hard to say for sre without holding it in hand and comparing with one bought there, but since they told you they traded it in Paris that makes me belive its a bigger chance its real. This set was sold everywhere in the parks so Im sure that is why it was found on CM lanyards there. It is a really cute pin. I almost traded for another pin from that set but then I saw a Minnie and went for that one since it fits my collection

Snoffsan said:

Of course its hard to say for sre without holding it in hand and comparing with one bought there, but since they told you they traded it in Paris that makes me belive its a bigger chance its real. This set was sold everywhere in the parks so Im sure that is why it was found on CM lanyards there. It is a really cute pin. I almost traded for another pin from that set but then I saw a Minnie and went for that one since it fits my collection

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Yeah, that makes sense! I've just been taught from WDW to associate any lanyard pins as sketchy. It's good to know not all parks are like that!

Found some more interesting pins on my park trading travels! I acquired the flower pin from a guest who was all too thrilled to take yet another Stitch pin from my traders. It's not normally what I trade for but I'd never seen it before and I loved the details and intricacy of it. (which will look pretty foolish if this is a scrapper) I only saw the front of it when making the trade but once I held it it felt lighter than usual which made me suspicious.

The 40 Dreams Go Round pin was a trivia pin on a CM lanyard (hidden pins you have to answer trivia questions to access, usually these are reserved for special pins or pins the CM doesn't want to be immediately stripped away) The CM said she got it from a Japanese guest, and it was so interesting she made it her trivia pin. I was intrigued by it as well so of course I grabbed it. I couldn't find either of these 2 in the database but y'all can probably work your magic assuming they aren't scrappers and I'm being silly.

I don’t know if your BATB pin is real or a scrapper, but it looks like this pin on PP:




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Captain Fartbeard said:

Found some more interesting pins on my park trading travels! I acquired the flower pin from a guest who was all too thrilled to take yet another Stitch pin from my traders. It's not normally what I trade for but I'd never seen it before and I loved the details and intricacy of it. (which will look pretty foolish if this is a scrapper) I only saw the front of it when making the trade but once I held it it felt lighter than usual which made me suspicious.

The 40 Dreams Go Round pin was a trivia pin on a CM lanyard (hidden pins you have to answer trivia questions to access, usually these are reserved for special pins or pins the CM doesn't want to be immediately stripped away) The CM said she got it from a Japanese guest, and it was so interesting she made it her trivia pin. I was intrigued by it as well so of course I grabbed it. I couldn't find either of these 2 in the database but y'all can probably work your magic assuming they aren't scrappers and I'm being silly.

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The Japan pin is a game prize pin. There is a place in both Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland where you play carnival type games and hope to win a plush. If you fail, you get a pin or a charm. That one is from last year, so it's not a surprise it's not in the databases. It often takes longer for their pins to work their way into the hands of someone familiar with the English databases.

hopemax said:

The Japan pin is a game prize pin. There is a place in both Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland where you play carnival type games and hope to win a plush. If you fail, you get a pin or a charm. That one is from last year, so it's not a surprise it's not in the databases. It often takes longer for their pins to work their way into the hands of someone familiar with the English databases.

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That's super cool! I need to go to Japan and lose a bunch of carnival games lol

I know the trade arcade just wrapped up, but I happened to be in MK yesterday and a bunch of traders were set up in Frontierland. I wanted to ride Tron for the first time, and I was super late in the virtual queue, so I had plenty of time to make some more trades. I also got to meet up with someone I met on the Pinpics forums which was super cool! My haul for the day is below:





There are some pins of note, mainly the Chip and Dale 100 and the Stitch Ice Cream pin. The Chip and Dale one is the one I made the offer for on the arcade, which I had assumed was going to time out. I saw the pin in person and figured what the heck might as well go for it since I probably wasn't getting it from the arcade. Lo and behold, the trader accepted the offer last minute so I'll have 2 of them! I can trade one and keep the other. For the Stitch ice cream pin, I had to part with my only other Nick Wilde ZPD pin (I traded the other one in the arcade for a Food-D pin). I was confident that I'd be able to retain at least one Nick Wilde for my permanent collection, but people just kept giving me offers I couldn't refuse. I also love Tamatoa, I had "Shiny" stuck in my head the past couple of days so I'd been itching to get my hands on him. Dooku's super cool as well, he's by far the biggest pin I have. And I ADORE Copper he's from DLP (I got him from the Pinpics trader who said she has a German friend who got it for her) I'll have to add the rest of this series to my ISO list because he's really darn cute.

On a side note, I think fate is taunting me because the ice cream pin is the only trade I couldn't complete for the trade quest. (I had trades lined up for beach&pool and castle requirements but after not getting ice cream decided not to accept). However today is the day I get that darn Ice Cream pin...

I also felt like it was easier to get hidden mickeys (all these were from trading with guests). I'm not certain of anything but could the 2024 hidden Mickeys might finally be starting to decline in trade value?

I also decided to pony up for some pins (there's a special CM discount going on right now that makes things a bit more affordable, expect to see a lot more pins in my collection over the next month or so). I was curious and decided to buy one of those hidden disney mystery set pins. Lo and behold, who should make an appearance but Mr. Ratigan himself? I'm so thrilled that a chaser fell into my lap! I'm not sure whether I'll trade him or keep him. I'm also not sure how often chasers show up in these, did I get super lucky or are these found in there often? Might push my luck and get some more if the odds are reasonable.


Also if that Simba showtime isn't the most adorable thing.... I might have to get multiples of him!

Great haul. Good news on the 2024 Hidden series. Have a few I'm still trying to get.

Oo

firechief18 said:

Great haul. Good news on the 2024 Hidden series. Have a few I'm still trying to get.

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Oooh which ones?

Captain Fartbeard said:

Oo

Oooh which ones?

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Working on the WALL-E set, missing the ship and Hal (chaser), R2 set, missing R2-BOO (Chaser).

firechief18 said:

Working on the WALL-E set, missing the ship and Hal (chaser), R2 set, missing R2-BOO (Chaser).

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Saw R2-Boo the other day on someone’s lanyard, would’ve loved to make a trade but I didn’t have my pins with me. I’m not super desperate to complete those series though as I mostly use them for traders

Wanted to celebrate making it through the longest shift I've had in a good bit (over 11 hours) by rewarding myself with some pins. I head down to Spaceship Earth to get one of the Zootopia PD packs in the hopes of getting Judy, Nick, or one of the ones I'm still missing. When I happen to glance over at the pinboard and what do my eyes behold but TEACUP FIGARO!!! Suddenly, instead of hoping my pins were good ones, I'm begging for repeats so I can trade them out for Figaro. Long story short, here he is! I traded the other ZPD pin (it was also a repeat) with another guest and got Mochi cookie! All in all a very good day... without even trying.





P.S. FIGARO TEACUP